It Tastes Like Chicken

Mirroring a wave of pizzerias on both coasts dumping everything from Cajun crawfish to pineapples on their pies, Pizza Hut said Wednesday it is introducing two new pizzas topped with grilled chicken breast.

The Italian Chicken Pizza and Chicken Supreme pies are the latest in a series of aggressive innovations for Pizza Hut.

Pizza Hut’s most recent product launches - the cheese-obsessed Stuffed Crust and TripleDecker pies - have been well received. Combined, they’re being gobbled up at a rate of about $1 billion a year, accounting for 20 percent of the chain’s U.S. sales.

However, much of TripleDecker’s success has come at the expense of Stuffed Crust, which already had been moving along at a $1 billion annual pace in the 10 months before the TripleDecker was introduced last year.

Pizza Hut, the restaurant leader in the $30 billion pizza industry, said its new chicken-topped pies will be introduced Monday for an eight-week trial at its 7,900 U.S. locations.